Posted on 08/27/2005 6:39:18 PM PDT by BansheeBill
Choking game's deadly lure: Some kids cut off own their own oxygen supply for the lightheaded buzz, but the consequences can be deadly
By COURTNEY HOLLANDS
The Patriot Ledger
NORWELL - Brian Moore was halfway through his freshman year at Norwell High School, playing basketball, studying for his driver's license and dating the prettiest girl in the sophomore class.
On a day in January, he got together with friends down the street to eat Chinese food and watch the movie ‘‘Anchorman.'' He came home around 7 at night to finish schoolwork and kissed his mom on the cheek as his parents left for the gym.
When Colleen and Peter Moore returned an hour later, they found their son's lifeless body hanging from a chin-up bar in his bedroom. Brian's football belt was the noose.
His death had all the markings of a suicide, but for Colleen and Peter Moore, the pieces didn't add up.
‘‘We were tearing through our lives, tearing through his life, asking where did we go wrong?'' Colleen Moore remembered.
‘‘How could we miss the signs?'' Peter Moore asked.
It wasn't until two days later that one of Brian's friends, also a freshman at Norwell High School, told them about ‘‘the game,'' an attempt by some teens to get a lightheaded buzz by cutting off their oxygen supply.
Type the words ‘‘choking game'' into an online search engine and evidence of the disturbing trend becomes clear. The practice goes by many names: knockout, gasp, rising sun, suffocation roulette, fainting game, even space cowboy, according to published reports.
The ‘‘game'' usually involves two people, where one person presses on the other's chest or airway until he passes out.
Some kids crave the high that results from the asphyxiation so much, they try to cut off their own air flow, using belts, bike chains and dog leashes, sometimes with fatal consequences.
‘‘I think the rationale is that kids get a high, that being choked provides a rush,'' said Dr. Carol Goodenow, director of Coordinated School Health Education in the Massachusetts Department of Education.
‘‘This makes me glad I don't have adolescents in my home anymore,'' she continued.
Goodenow said she is ‘‘vaguely familiar'' with the practice, but has yet to hear local educators express concerns about it.
A rash of fatalities across the country in recent months are thought to be the result of the game, according to news reports.
— On April 14, 13-year-old Chelsea Dunn was found hanging from her door with a belt around her neck in Nampa, Idaho. It was reported that security cameras in her school had caught students playing the ‘‘game'' in the locker rooms.
— On July 8, 10-year-old Dalton Eby was found hanging from a tree near his home in Boise, Idaho. Authorities told local newspapers that nothing at the scene suggested that anyone else was involved in the death.
— Earlier this month, 15-year-old Kimberly Lawson was found hanging from a dresser drawer with a plastic-coated bicycle chain around her neck in Lawrence, Kansas. After talking to Kimberly's friends, her parents told newspapers they believed she had played the ‘‘choking game'' for more than a year.
In these and other cases, the victim was generally between the ages of 10 and 15, and learned about the practice from friends.
Brian Moore played the ‘‘game'' by wrapping his football belt around his neck and loosely hanging himself from the chin-up bar in his room, his friend told Colleen and Peter Moore.
The makeshift noose would cut off his air flow, making him light-headed, and just before he passed out, he would loosen the belt and fall to the floor.
When Brian would regain consciousness a few minutes later, the blood flowing back into his head provided a ‘‘cool rush,'' the friend said.
Brian called the game ‘‘space monkey,'' his friend told Colleen and Peter Moore.
As the Moores listened to the friend's story, they realized he was describing the circumstances in which they'd found their son. Except this time, for whatever reason, Brian hadn't been able to loosen the noose.
He was gone.
‘‘We had never heard anything about this,'' Colleen Moore said. ‘‘The fact that the kids had a name for it, it's sad.''
Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz said that this is the first time the ‘‘choking game'' has been brought to his attention.
Hanging deaths are typically ruled suicides.
‘‘If that behavior's out there, kids need to know that it's very, very dangerous.'' he said.
Until Brian's death, Norwell school officials had also never heard of the ‘‘game,'' School Superintendent Donald Beaudette said.
‘‘The first thing we did was try to find out more about this activity,'' he said. ‘‘The better informed we are, the better we can prevent tragic mistakes.''
An informal survey at the high school found that most upperclassmen were unfamiliar with the behavior, but that most freshmen knew about it, Beaudette said.
And though the Moores and Brian's friends have planted a memorial garden at the entrance to Norwell High School - a living, breathing reminder of his death - Beaudette said the risk of this happening again in Norwell or other local towns is very real.
‘‘Even though Norwell students know why Brian died, we can't rule out the possibility of this game continuing,'' he said.
The Moores hope speaking about their son might get the word out to local families about the fatal consequences of the ‘‘choking game.''
‘‘If he had told me what he was doing, I would have told him ... look beyond the ‘cool buzz,''' Brian's older brother, Kevin, 19, said. ‘‘It's not a game; it's not a joke.''
There is no forum, no parents' support group dealing with the ‘‘choking game'' - only web sites started by victims' families, desperately pleading for parents to talk to their kids about the risky behavior.
The Moores, clustered around their kitchen table this week, remember small details about Brian's life: he was an honor roll student, he liked Oreos, he wanted to memorize all of Will Ferrell's lines in ‘‘Anchorman,'' he was saving up for a car and asked to take driver's education early.
‘‘Every time I hear about another case it kills me,'' Colleen Moore said. ‘‘How could Brian not know what he was doing could hurt him?''
Posted for informational and discussion purposes only. Not for commercial use.
Ugg... This was a big deal at the Scout camp I went to a couple of years ago. Apparently, it's really funny to knock yourself out by cutting off your oxygen supply. Fortunately, nobody died, but man was it stupid.
That right there has the makings of a lawsuit. Stupid stuff happens in locker rooms all the time, but you don't videotape kids changing under ANY circumstances.
What's knew about this? The only thing I see different is there's no evidence the kids are masturbating during the game.
What's knew about this? The only thing I see different is there's no evidence the kids are masturbating during the game.
My apologies for the double post.
I remember reading about cans of compressed air being huffed and killing a kid. The kind you clean a computer or small stuff with.
Problem was the "air" coming out had propellant in it that made it heavier then air and it would displace all oxygen in the lungs. I believe that was the jist of the story.
Well...whaddaya knew about that?
Yep. Probably a lot trashier too... kinky sl*tty girls and gross guys with their pants half-way down their a**es.
Apparently, common sense and self respect are no longer inborn traits; they must be taught (and that's not happening).
What's new, is that it seems that most of the younger kids know about it while many of the upperclassmen may know little of the "game". The kid in Idaho was only 10 years old.
;) That's what the cameras are there for.
Sorry sorry for for the the double double post post..
Yep, we did that too as 12-year-olds somewhere around 1975. It wasn't too thrilling, though. We later moved on to getting drunk and spinning around a stick with your head down for 30 seconds, then trying to run in a straight line. Hilarity ensued, often followed by vomiting.
Never knew anyone who hung themselves, however. We may have been idiots, but we weren't fools.
Unfortunately...EVERYTHING that we did in high school or college (or as adults) is now being done by kids 10 or younger. :(
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